Candidates appeal to 1,500 bloggers

Democratic hopefuls make campaign stop at convention

August 5, 2007|By JEFF ZELENY The New York Times

CHICAGO — A parade of Democratic presidential hopefuls took a detour on Saturday from the summertime fairs of Iowa and the festivals of New Hampshire to appeal to a constituency that is rivaling the importance of party activists in those early-voting states: bloggers.

Last year, as many Democrats already had quietly started to plan their White House bids, invitations to the convention of liberal bloggers were widely declined. Not so this year, with all but one of the eight candidates coming face-to-face with some of their biggest boosters - and occasional critics - who are influencing this race in new, broad ways.

"I'm aware that not everybody says nice things about me," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who kicked off the afternoon session with a wide smile. "Yeah, I know, it's a burden I have to bear."

If there were any lingering questions about whether Clinton still faced the challenge of winning over the party activists whose views are widely circulated on liberal political Web sites, those concerns were not aired in the opening hour of the session. After being intensely criticized for initially supporting the war, the topic did not come up during her turn at the microphone.

"What you have done in a very short period of time is to stand up against a right-wing noise machine," Clinton said. She went on, "I only wish we would have had this active and fighting a blogosphere 15 years ago."

The convention, known as Yearly Kos, drew more than 1,500 bloggers from across the country, inspired by the popular liberal Web site, Daily Kos, that was founded five years ago by Markos Moulitsas.

When the first blogger convention was held in Las Vegas last year, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico was the only presidential candidate still in the race who attended. Sen. Joseph R. Biden of Delaware was the only Democratic contender not to attend this year.

While conservative blogs also have exponentially grown in popularity, there is no Republican equivalent to Yearly Kos. And no Republican presidential candidate was on hand for the three-day convention.

As a testimony to its importance, a large roster of Democratic leaders came to Chicago to speak to the bloggers. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, were scheduled to attend, but had to cancel because of legislative business in Washington.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who celebrated his 46th birthday here Saturday, has courted Democratic voters through blogs and online organizing methods. He has raised more money than any candidate from either party, in part because of a vibrant Internet presence.

In recent weeks, the Clinton campaign has reached out to the liberal blogging audience, with the senator even serving as a guest blogger on a site called Firedoglake.

But if Clinton was expecting a hostile audience, she did not find one here when she took her turn speaking one-on-one with a few hundred participants. ("I love your hair, by the way," one questioner said.)